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Unit 2: The God Question Junior Year Religion Course Overview
Unit 0: Introductory Materials Unit 1: Epistemology (The Study of Knowledge) Unit 2: The God Question
The Characteristics of God
Unit 3: The Christian Understanding of & Response to God The Characteristics of the Christian God Faith, Prayer, and Discipleship
Unit 4: Moral Reasoning Unit 5: Conscience Formation Unit 6: Contemporary Ethical Issues
Meeting the Living God by William J. O’Malley, S.J.
The Third Question: What is God Like?
The God of the Philosophers
The God of the Philosophers The Characteristics of God
The Human Mind (Mere Christianity, p. 22-26) Mind conscious, purpose, preferences Director gives instructions
The Universe (Mere Christianity, p. 29) A great artist good, beauty, order rather than chaos Merciless and not a friend to man
The Law of Human Nature (Mere Christianity, p. 30) A Power that is intensely interested in right conduct – in fair play,
unselfishness (generosity), courage, good faith, honesty, truthfulness
The God of the Philosophers The Characteristics of God
The human ability to reason God is a Mind capable of reasoning (seeing alternatives
and choosing among them)
The created universe God is a Creator who works with an ultimate purpose,
favors growing and evolving, and allows suffering and death
The paradoxical nature of humans God’s nature is also a paradox
The God of the Philosophers The Characteristics of God
Immanence The idea that God is within, indwelling, and “locked” in
the world Transcendence
The idea that God is beyond, apart, in no way boxed within the world
Although it might seem like a paradox, God is both immanent (dwells in the world) and transcendent (unbearably distant) all at once and at the same time
The God of the Philosophers The Characteristics of God
The paradoxical nature of God as both immanent and transcendent can be better understood with the following analogies: Science A Fish Atoms Plato’s Allegory of the Cave Helen Keller
Meeting the Living God by William J. O’Malley, S.J.
The Third Question: What is God Like?
The God of Other Religions
The God of Other Religions Mere Christianity, Book 2, Chapter 1: The
Rival Conceptions of God A Christian does not have to believe that all the
other religions are simply wrong all through An atheist must believe that the main point in all
the religions of the whole world is simply one huge mistake
The God of Other Religions Pantheism (polytheism); God is only immanent
The belief that God animates the universe and that the universe is God and anything you find in the universe is a part of God god is the sun , god is the moon, god is the tree, god is the rock, god is the
mountain humans worship the sun, the moon, the tree, the rock, and the mountain
because each of these things is god The belief that God is beyond good and evil
Judaism/Christianity (monotheism); God is both immanent and transcendent The belief that God invented and made the universe and that the
universe is God’s creation (Genesis 1) The belief that God is good and righteous, takes sides, loves love and
hates hatred, and desires for us to behave in one way and not in another The belief that God made the universe, but that a great many things
have gone wrong with the world that God made and that God insists on our putting them right again
The God of Other Religions Mere Christianity, Book 2, Chapter 2: The
Invasion Christianity is a complex religion for a complicated
and odd world Christianity is a believable religion because it is not
something a person could have guessed or made up
The God of Other Religions Dualism (polytheism)
The belief that there are two equal and independent powers (or spirits or gods) at the back of everything, one of them good and the other bad, and that this universe is the battlefield in which they fight out an endless war
Judaism/Christianity (monotheism) The belief that this is a good world that has gone wrong, but still
retains the memory of what it ought to have been The belief that the cruelty and injustice found in the universe is
the result of forces (the evil one or the devil) and people that have fallen away from God’s goodness
The belief that the Dark Power responsible for death, disease, and sin in the universe was created by God, and was good when he was created, and went wrong
The belief that the war between good and evil is a civil war or a rebellion, not a war between independent powers
The God of Other Religions Christianity is the story of how the rightful
king (Jesus Christ) has landed in enemy (the evil one) occupied territory (the world) to lead a group of people (Christians) in a great campaign of sabotage (self-sacrificing love)
The God of Other Religions Although people have seen God from different angles,
different times and cultures, and different preconceptions and biases, there is only one Mind Behind It All
The different ways of thinking about God Polytheism
The belief that there are multiple gods that maintain a high level of immanence and are only slightly transcendent
Monotheism The belief that there is only one supreme god that maintains a high
level of transcendence and is sometimes also immanent
The God of Other Religions Polytheism
The belief that there are multiple gods that maintain a high level of immanence and are only slightly transcendent
Dualism The belief that there are two equal and independent powers (or spirits or gods)
at the back of everything, one of them good and the other bad, and that this universe is the battlefield in which they fight out an endless war
Ex. Zoroastrianism A dualist religion of ancient Persia that split god into two equal and independent
powers, one of them good and the other bad Pantheism
The belief that god is all things and therefore there are multiple gods that are completely immanent
Ex. African Traditional Religion, native American Traditional Religion, Ancient Religions of the Middle East, Ancient Greek & Roman mythology
The God of Other Religions Monotheism
The belief that there is only one supreme god that maintains a high level of transcendence and is sometimes also immanent
Ex. Judaism The monotheistic religion that believes God is fully transcendent and
immanent and is binded to the Chosen People of Israel through a Covenant Ex. Deism
The belief that god put the world in motion, but no longer is involved in the world in any way; the belief in a god that is completely transcendent
Ex. Islam The monotheistic transcendent religion that arose around 600 A.D. as the
last revelation of the living God; it teaches that God exists from forever and is unquestionably supreme over all
The God of Other Religions Hinduism
The complex and diverse religion that originated on the Indian sub-continent whose adherents believe in reincarnation and the possibility of absorption into Brahma or the Oversoul
Buddhism The religion that arose from Hinduism through the
teachings of Siddhartha Gautama who believed that humans could achieve Nirvana by following “The Middle Path” of equilibrium and moderation